Career advice from Thomas Friedman

I found this article which says 66% of businesses fail within 4 years according to the Small Business Administration: http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/business-failure.htm

That was written in 2006 when we were in a boom (unjustified as it might have been). I'd imagine those numbers are much higher now.

So basically Friedman is advocating new graduates go into a field where they have around a 3 in 4 chance of failing. Given there are only 1 or 2 unemployed people for every 10 in the broad market I'd say that's bad advice.

This sounds like one of the stronger arguments against getting a degree instead of going straight into a startup:

"A person with big debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy is not a person who should be taking risks."

Debt is a drag on everything else you can do, it's absolutely not worth it unless you are getting something really helpful in exchange.

If Thomas Friedman told me the sun rises in the East, I'd look to verify.